Different types of documentary

Documentary
There are 6 types of documentary which are as follows:

1. Poetic
2. Expository
3. Observational
4. Participatory
5. Reflexive
6. Performative

Expository

• This mode is what we most identify with the documentary - it "emphasizes verbal commentary
  
  and argumentative logic" often using a narrator.
• Assumes a logical argument and a "right" and "proper" answer using direct address
  + offering preferred meaning.
• Most associated with Television News programming.

  Observational

• The filmmaker remains hidden behind the camera, ignored by the surrounding environment.
• Since nothing is staged for the camera, the camera rushes about to keep up with the action
  resulting in rough, shaky, often amateur-looking footage.
• No voiceovers are used – it is presented in its ‘purest’ form
• Key Examples
  Frederick Wiseman, of the Cinema Verite/Direct cinema Movement: .Hospital (1970) – fly on the wall, American hospital

Reflexive

• conveying to people that this is not necessarily "truth" but a reconstruction of it - "a" truth, not
  "the" truth.
•  Voiceover (if there is one present) will sound questioning and maybe a little uncertain.
•  Makes the audience question the reality of documentary
• Key Examples
  Dziga Vertov's
  in late twenties - the mechanical camera and cameraman become part of the subjectof the Reflexive Mode include:Man with a Movie Camera (1929) - documents the mechanization of Soviet life
  

The Reflexive Mode acknowledges the constructed nature of documentary and flaunts it.